Hawkeye to Host FIRST® LEGO® League Regional Qualifier

posted on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 in  College News

By: Public Relations and Marketing

WATERLOO—Hawkeye Community College will host the FIRST® Lego® League Regional Qualifier on Saturday, December 19, 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., in Tama Hall on Hawkeye’s main campus.

FIRST Lego League is a worldwide program in its 18th year of getting children eager to learn science, technology, engineering, and math. The program helps children develop skills in problem-solving, teamwork, strategizing, and creative thinking.

This year’s challenge, TRASH TREKSM, is all about reducing, reusing, and recycling the items we do not need anymore. From collection, to sorting, to smart production and reuse, there is more to trash than meets the eye. Using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technologies and LEGO Education materials, children work alongside adult mentors to design, build, and program autonomous robots and create an innovative solution to a problem as part of their research project. Teams will have to program their robots to solve a set of missions on an obstacle course set on a thematic playing surface. Game missions include demolishing a building and salvaging valuable materials from the debris, converting organic material into fertilizer, and reusing methane produced in a landfill to power a truck and/or factory.

The qualifying event will include teams from Cedar Falls, Allison, Decorah, Osage, Denver, Jesup, Nora Springs, Charles City, Traer, and Waverly. Teams judged in three areas: project; robot design; and FIRST LEGO League Core Values, which embody aspects of teamwork and sportsmanship. Top robot game scores are also honored.

The event begins at 9:00 a.m. and concludes with an awards ceremony beginning at 12:30 p.m. The top teams qualify to compete in the state championship held January 16, 2016, at Iowa State University in Ames.